Barney Zwartz; 17/5/08
The Sydney bishop disowned by Australia’s Catholic bishops as failing to understand basic church teaching says the church is trying to restrict debate on sexual abuse. Bishop Geoffrey Robinson released a statement yesterday replying to his condemnation by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference last week, saying he was disappointed but not surprised. Bishop Robinson, the auxiliary bishop of Sydney, who for a decade headed efforts by the Australian Catholic Church to tackle sexual abuse, resigned in disillusionment in 2004. Last year he published Confronting Sex and Power in the Catholic Church, arguing that until the church considered radical reform from the Pope down, it was not serious about tackling clerical sexual abuse.
